CHENNAI: For two years, Metropolitan Transport Corporation hasn’t been able to fix a technical glitch and begin selling Rs 1,000 concessional monthly passes.
Not much progress was made in preventing malpractice or impersonation. Miscreants with insider help continued to take photocopies of original printed tickets and sold them in black.
Some MTC staff were arrested in connection with the Travel As You Please (TAYP) scheme scam, but the process remains unchanged. MTC, reeling under a severe financial crunch due to reduced patronage and increased operational cost, is incurring losses. MTC sells around 10 lakh such passes annually.
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) Coimbatore recently fixed this and began printing high-security seasonal passes. Sold at Gandhipuram and Ukkadam bus stands, they have photos of with a unique barcode. “We have ensured that no one apart from the person concerned uses the pass,” said an official. TNSTC Madurai has also started printing the passes.
Authorities struggled to identify right thickness of the paper on which photos could be printed clearly before fixing it. By next month, all Electronic Ticketing Machines with conductors will have scanners to read bar codes on tickets. This is to eliminate impersonation, with conductors having a count of how many used these passes, the official added, requesting anonymity.
MTC Chennai, with higher patronage and sales of seasonal tickets, is not sure how to go about the issue. “It looks like the earlier proposal to improve security measures on printed passes has been shelved and talks are on with Chennai Metrorail and Southern Railway (suburban train) to have a common mobility card for using public transportation in the city,” said an official.